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Hong Kong International School
Slightly OT...
Friends just announced that they are moving to HKG next June (after school ends), with their 9th grade daughter. They are hoping to enrol her in the Hong Kong International School.
Does anyone have any feedback on the school, getting in, what it's like for expats, how they handle acclimating new kids, etc.?
You'd be much better off asking this on one of the HK sites focussed on expats living here. For example http://www.geoexpat.com/forum/
FWIW HKIS is a Christian Missionary school that rejects well-qualified teachers who apply for posts there simply on the grounds that they are not Christians. For me that's enough in itself for me not to want any kids of mine to go there. YMMV
I have never heard that about HKIS as many of my friends went there. It's a good school but extremely difficult to get in. It may be easier this year since many expats have left town.
I have never heard that about HKIS as many of my friends went there. It's a good school but extremely difficult to get in. It may be easier this year since many expats have left town.
kinda agree, but to ur fd's daughter: from my experience (of being a student there) that place can be one of those where you can have access of anything you can think of *wink*. not that its VERY hard if you try in town, but it's just accessible with the people.
all in all, it's a good school, but there are pits. i didnt like the school much, but then it's me.
This school is getting more popular these days, esp with celebs. And traditional "brand name" schools are very hard to get in (as usual) but now they also get extremely expensive.
If your friends' kids don't speak / write Chinese, there may not be that many choices. I know Maryknoll, DGS, DBS offer non-chinese speaking program for kids back in the days when I was growing up. I don't know if they still do. If not, HKIS maybe your only choice.
Bollocks - there is a whole network of schools that teach the British curriculum in English: http://www.esf.edu.hk plus at least a dozen international private schools teaching various curricula in English (Australian, Canadian, Singaporean, etc).
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Quote:
Originally Posted by adamak
This school is getting more popular these days, esp with celebs. And traditional "brand name" schools are very hard to get in (as usual) but now they also get extremely expensive.
Agreed - many international schools are now status symbols for wealthy local families to send their children for schooling. Besides the high fees (which are often in excess of over US$1K/month) there may be also a debenture required as well.
no, not really. For us middle class it is a necessity to consider since the baby boom we had 3 years ago. We're looking at a lot of schools, not concerned if it's international or not. We want a well rounded curriculum with Putonghua, Cantonese and English. Not much to ask eh?
International schools don't cut it on that front, so a compromise will have to be sought. We are going for Harrow with private tuition for the languages. Failing that, I'll take him to the UK to get a solid English education followed by the US schools for the connections.
Agreed - many international schools are now status symbols for wealthy local families to send their children for schooling. Besides the high fees (which are often in excess of over US$1K/month) there may be also a debenture required as well.
There are quite a bit private schools around the town together with DSS (Direct Admission Scheme) schools which cost less (St. Stephen's College at Stanley charge 5K HKD per month, one of the highest among them and their Primary section has compulsory boarding at Primary 6)
If you are OK with HK education flow there should be plenty of choices, more and more schools tend to have mandarin based Chinese / Chinese History lesson now (which will be an issue if you cannot get them exempted ....)
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Out of the international schools, HKIS has the biggest reputationof the being the "party school". At least that was the concensus back in the 90s when I was studying in HK (I went to German Swiss at the time).
Out of the international schools, HKIS has the biggest reputationof the being the "party school". At least that was the concensus back in the 90s when I was studying in HK (I went to German Swiss at the time).
Well, dude, welcome to the 21st century.
Well done Australia International. We are proud of you. Stealing, drugs, and now blackmail. Well done boys.........
